Christmas Mantel Decorating

I was feeling something simple, and neutral, and “Christmas in the country”, so I drew color/theme inspiration from our Christmas tree, and played with a collection of items I gathered from around the house, with the exception of the greenery and bead garland.

I started with the 100-something-year old arched window my great-grandpa salvaged from an old church in Minnesota. We’ve had it for several years, and we look forward to installing it over a clawfoot tub here someday.

After the window was safely propped up there, I taped a 90¢ strand of silver beads (from Michaels) back and forth across the front of the mantel shelf a couple of times:

I covered up the tape with some leftover faux snow, and then layered in two bunches of faux greenery (also from Michaels):

I popped in some leftover ornaments and a variety of candle holders…

(Doesn’t the glass in that window sort of look like ice? I love it!)

I always like to mix in a few smooth, white pitchers to contrast with the color & texture of everything else, too…

I made the twine trees a couple of months ago for a women’s function at church:

They’re just cardboard cones, wrapped in twine, banded at the bottom with leftover ribbon, and topped with sale items from the jewelry aisle at Michaels:

It was such a fun display to work on, and I think it’ll be easy to modify it into a Spring mantel when I’m feeling like I want to play around with it again.

As for today, I’ve decided I don’t have enough glitter embedded into my skin yet, so I’m creating another Christmas-y vignette for our coffee table. Come on back tomorrow if you’d like to check it out!